It's pretty good, especially if you're running buffs to make it even bigger. Good for protecting your face early, or your other minions. I'd imagine this sees play, even if most of Paladin's best Holy spells are rotating. A real good 3-drop for a variety of Paladin decks.
It's kind of like Annoy-o-Horn, except the Taunts don't have Divine Shield )and there's only three of them). It could be an OK card, but I'm not really certain what kind of deck would want to play it, unless it's going big on getting cheap The Garden's Grace plays. It's kind of boring, but could be serviceable in Arena.
I don't know, I kind of really like this card. It's almost a draw, and it does give extra stats to whatever minion it Dredges. I'm not gonna lie: I think this can see play in Buffy Paladin decks, especially since it can play well with Radar Detector.
I think 2v2 would see more play than Arena, Duels, and mercenaries. What would be something more innovative than something I haven't already said?
Also an idea is increasing standard deck size to 32 or 34. Sometimes we just want to fit that last card in our deck and don't have a slot. Just adding 2-4 more cards to decks would be a cool change.
In MTG you can have as many cards in your deck as you want. Yet, everyone plays with 60 cards, because adding more cards will just increase the inconsistency of your deck.
Also, adding the 2x2 mode definitely cannot be " easily made". This is a major overhaul and redesign of complete UI and logics.
Also, just imagine, now you have to wait 75 seconds for your opponents turn. In 2x2 you could be waiting 225 seconds, roughly 4 minutes for your next turn.
Legends of Runeterra made it work. Also I don't think adding 2 cards would worsen a deck especially if it's a control deck.
I guess we're doing this now, sure. I mean, Pirates have kind of always been an almost Rogue thing and, although Hooktusk is pretty expensive for a tempo deck I don't hate it. A little like Tickatus, but with the flexibility to pivot to more defensive maneuvers if called for. Maybe we get a slow meta, and Rogue can do its whole PIrate thing and get some Plunders? I'm sure people will try it. We'll definitely see a lot of it in the theorycrafting streams.
Could be a cool card. Reminds me a bit of Anubarak in that it's a really cool effect that doesn't necessarily jive with the rest of what Rogue is doing. The best thing about it is that it synergizes with itself, so it can kind of go in any deck that wants it. If you're saying this card is busted, I need three words to tear your argument apart: "Crabatoa is OK."
I'm seeing a lot more bottom-of-deck support than I expected! I have mixed feelings!
On one hand, this is an interesting new mechanism for the game. On the other hand, it could make broken combo plays a lot easier to find.
The best-case scenario is if cards that can be added/sent to the bottom are just good cards, not OP combo pieces. I doubt Team 5 had the foresight to make sure that's true.
I think 2v2 would see more play than Arena, Duels, and mercenaries. What would be something more innovative than something I haven't already said?
Also an idea is increasing standard deck size to 32 or 34. Sometimes we just want to fit that last card in our deck and don't have a slot. Just adding 2-4 more cards to decks would be a cool change.
In MTG you can have as many cards in your deck as you want. Yet, everyone plays with 60 cards, because adding more cards will just increase the inconsistency of your deck.
Also, adding the 2x2 mode definitely cannot be " easily made". This is a major overhaul and redesign of complete UI and logics.
Also, just imagine, now you have to wait 75 seconds for your opponents turn. In 2x2 you could be waiting 225 seconds, roughly 4 minutes for your next turn.
If we're playing Pirate Rogue, then I guess we're playing Pirate Rogue. Considering that Tuskarrrr Trawler is a Pirate, comboing this with the Trawler to Dredge the Sunken Vessel is a thing that you are allowed to do. Feels a bit slow for 5 mana, but if you really want Hooktusk active this isn't a terrible way to go about doing it.
I wish they changed Friend akin to Djinni, i.e. making him grant buddies on Deathrattle so that he doesn't get abused with Brann while retaining the power to give you spicy games.
A very strong card, and the only Rogue Pirate I've seen so far that doesn't need to be in a pirate deck. Quest Rogue already has the Assassin that's usually cheaper and generally the same effect, but unless your opponent is running a lot of Dredge this is effectively a "kill" effect and should find a home in decks that don't run a lot of SI:7 cards.
Pirate Rogue is apparently a thing, all leading up to Captain Hooktusk. It's not a huge leap in logic to find a way for Rogue to abuse weird Pirate synergies, and Cutlass Courier could be a really powerful draw engine for such a deck. Not really seeing any synergies beyond a dedicated Pirate tribal deck, but that's probably enough for this to see play.
I think 2v2 would see more play than Arena, Duels, and mercenaries. What would be something more innovative than something I haven't already said?
Also an idea is increasing standard deck size to 32 or 34. Sometimes we just want to fit that last card in our deck and don't have a slot. Just adding 2-4 more cards to decks would be a cool change.
OK, maybe Piranha Swarmers have a purpose after all. It feels a bit clunky to set up, but maybe, if you really want it to be a thing, you could generate some sort of OTK with Swarmers and Bioluminescence for a pseudo-Malygos to kill your opponent with Scalding Geysers. I do think it's funny that Blizzard knew they had this card in the pipeline when they said, "We're definitely pushing the game away from OTKs." This card is either an OTK enabler or garbage with no in-between.
Bear'on Glashear, except cheaper, you can run multiple copies, and it fits a little better with what Shaman is doing right now. Not necessarily a bad finisher in Shaman decks that run cheap spells like Windchill, Scalding Geyser, and the like. I think this will be good, and will see a lot of play.
It's pretty boring. Unless there's a really good payoff for having as many Piranhas as possible, I don't think you'd want to run this minion in a serious deck.
I don't think Shaman is a good deck for cheap Beasts with Rush. Maybe there's a Legendary in the pipeline that pays off on all these Piranha cards? Otherwise this feels, to me, like wasted space.
Good for Burn Shaman, as draw-fixing and another spell to fuel Multicaster. I like its synergy with Windchill. Cheap enough and flexible enough that it's probably going to find a spot in at least one deck, if not most Shaman decks.
Iksar said that a tournament mode comes up ever so often, but one of the problems for designing it is that many players have different expectations for how such a mode would work. I personally also doubt the popularity of that, since casual players (99% of the playerbase) probably won't care too much about it. Also there were people who wanted a more hardcore version of the Dungeon runs and Duels has a pretty stable playerbase.
Also a side note: no one asked for a digital WoW cardgame, yet here we are.
2.
2v2 was actually one of the original Ideas that ended up becoming Mercenaries.
""We started with a handful of pitches and ideas to explore,” he explains. “One of the things that gets asked about from the community, and that the team is passionate about trying to figure out, is some form of 2v2, and that was actually one of the original pitches. But as we went through, we settled on… character progression, roguelike RPG [elements]… as the thing that we wanted to add to Hearthstone."
3.
Probably not worth the dev ressources. Dynamically adding and changing rules would not only be rather hard to program, but the UI for this would also be pretty overloaded(especially on mobile), which is something they always try to avoid. It also wouldn't really add anything to the game that hasn't been there before with Tavern Brawls and would probably end up being played even less. Also giving players the ability to play with every card in their deck for free would probably negatively impact their sales.
4.
Sure, cheaper deals are always nice but... Why would they lower the prices? The game obviously already makes a ton of money and if their data would show that making they bundles cheaper would increase the overall income they would have already done that. You also don't have to buy every pre-order, even if you are not f2p. Buying both expansion pre-orders is also (in my opinion) overkill anyways and the mini-sets are best of being bought with gold and a great deal on top of that. Sure that's still a ton of money and worth 3-4 tripple A games, however you also (hopefully) get a year long of fun out of it. Or you just go f2p
5.
Arena never really was a popular mode even when they did regular changes (also remember the Arena event? I feel old now), so I don't see any reason why that would be different nowadays, especially since there are so many more options now. Also they already do ban cards. I'm not saying that they won't do any changes to it in the future, but that those won't make it "one of the best modes" for the majority of the playerbase.
I don't buy Murlock, but a Dredge effect to find Gigafin and make it Cost Health is particularly spicy. I can't imagine that the new expansion is just a bunch of Murlocs for Warlock, so I don't think we'll see this in a dedicated tribal deck.
On Duels, maybe you never asked for it, but there was definitely people talking about wanting a PVP version of Dungeon Run back when it was first introduced with Kobolds & Catacombs. To say no one asked for it isn't factual nor is it nice.
But yes, Tournament mode would be a nice addition to the game.
2v2 is definitely more difficult to add with how Hearthstone's UI is setup and how it must be mobile-accessible too. Would it make Hearthstone better? Sure. Personally, I'd rather see development time spent on something more innovative that wouldn't be a niche part of the game.
Dean Ayala has mentioned wanting to do a Sandbox mode several times and I agree, Hearthstone would be more awesome with it. It brings that feel of kitchen table card games into the digital world and it kinda blows my mind that no one has really done it in any of the big card games. Being able to force rules on players through that type of mode would tie-in nicely to tournaments!
I know this isn't what you'd like to hear, but I think Hearthstone is one of the cheaper games to play. Considering that the game is a card game, there is a certain amount of money any non-casual player should expect to pay to continue to be a part of the meta. Hearthstone is cheaper now than it used to be (don't include cosmetics), the bundles have even been better if you look at them historically. Hearthstone is a small drop in the bucket compared to what it costs to play Magic competitively, and many players are completely Free to Play and have some great collections. Hearthstone is generous.
You are right though, cheaper Hearthstone has a possibility of being better.
Blizzard has stated in recent times that they are working on Arena and trying to see where they want to go with it. (Source 1) (Source 2)
Quest Warrior already has infinite value from Juggernaut, so I don't think this would see play in that deck. Now, let's talk about Control Warrior. If you're confident in your ability to find at least one Mr. Smite, this could be some sort of pseudo-win condition to burst down your opponent from hand (or you could just run Mr. Smite and Discover the three biggest Pirates available). I'm actually really excited for this minion for one very specfic reason: there's a good chance that, if it sees play, it gets Mr. Smite nerfed.
New Paladin Minion - Shimmering Sunfish
It's pretty good, especially if you're running buffs to make it even bigger. Good for protecting your face early, or your other minions. I'd imagine this sees play, even if most of Paladin's best Holy spells are rotating. A real good 3-drop for a variety of Paladin decks.
New Paladin Spell - Immortalized in Stone
It's kind of like Annoy-o-Horn, except the Taunts don't have Divine Shield )and there's only three of them). It could be an OK card, but I'm not really certain what kind of deck would want to play it, unless it's going big on getting cheap The Garden's Grace plays. It's kind of boring, but could be serviceable in Arena.
New Paladin Minion - Seafloor Savior
I don't know, I kind of really like this card. It's almost a draw, and it does give extra stats to whatever minion it Dredges. I'm not gonna lie: I think this can see play in Buffy Paladin decks, especially since it can play well with Radar Detector.
Top 5 things that would make Hearthstone better
Legends of Runeterra made it work. Also I don't think adding 2 cards would worsen a deck especially if it's a control deck.
How to Complete Leeroy Jenkins Mercenaries Event Task 2 "Stick To The Plan" - Tips & Parties Inside
Samuro with the bomb is one of my favorite tricks!
New Rogue Minion - Pirate Admiral Hooktusk
I guess we're doing this now, sure. I mean, Pirates have kind of always been an almost Rogue thing and, although Hooktusk is pretty expensive for a tempo deck I don't hate it. A little like Tickatus, but with the flexibility to pivot to more defensive maneuvers if called for. Maybe we get a slow meta, and Rogue can do its whole PIrate thing and get some Plunders? I'm sure people will try it. We'll definitely see a lot of it in the theorycrafting streams.
New Rogue Minion - Crabatoa
Could be a cool card. Reminds me a bit of Anubarak in that it's a really cool effect that doesn't necessarily jive with the rest of what Rogue is doing. The best thing about it is that it synergizes with itself, so it can kind of go in any deck that wants it. If you're saying this card is busted, I need three words to tear your argument apart: "Crabatoa is OK."
Radar Detector is a New Paladin Card Revealed by TechPulse for Voyage to the Sunken City
I'm seeing a lot more bottom-of-deck support than I expected! I have mixed feelings!
On one hand, this is an interesting new mechanism for the game. On the other hand, it could make broken combo plays a lot easier to find.
The best-case scenario is if cards that can be added/sent to the bottom are just good cards, not OP combo pieces. I doubt Team 5 had the foresight to make sure that's true.
Top 5 things that would make Hearthstone better
In MTG you can have as many cards in your deck as you want. Yet, everyone plays with 60 cards, because adding more cards will just increase the inconsistency of your deck.
Also, adding the 2x2 mode definitely cannot be " easily made". This is a major overhaul and redesign of complete UI and logics.
Also, just imagine, now you have to wait 75 seconds for your opponents turn. In 2x2 you could be waiting 225 seconds, roughly 4 minutes for your next turn.
New Rogue Spell - Azsharan Vessel
If we're playing Pirate Rogue, then I guess we're playing Pirate Rogue. Considering that Tuskarrrr Trawler is a Pirate, comboing this with the Trawler to Dredge the Sunken Vessel is a thing that you are allowed to do. Feels a bit slow for 5 mana, but if you really want Hooktusk active this isn't a terrible way to go about doing it.
[Now Live] Hearthstone Patch 22.6.1 Arrives on Wednesday, March 23 - Battlegrounds Armor Changes, Minion Removal, & Hotfixes
I wish they changed Friend akin to Djinni, i.e. making him grant buddies on Deathrattle so that he doesn't get abused with Brann while retaining the power to give you spicy games.
New Rogue Minion - Bootstrap Sunkeneer
A very strong card, and the only Rogue Pirate I've seen so far that doesn't need to be in a pirate deck. Quest Rogue already has the Assassin that's usually cheaper and generally the same effect, but unless your opponent is running a lot of Dredge this is effectively a "kill" effect and should find a home in decks that don't run a lot of SI:7 cards.
New Rogue Minion - Cutlass Courier
Pirate Rogue is apparently a thing, all leading up to Captain Hooktusk. It's not a huge leap in logic to find a way for Rogue to abuse weird Pirate synergies, and Cutlass Courier could be a really powerful draw engine for such a deck. Not really seeing any synergies beyond a dedicated Pirate tribal deck, but that's probably enough for this to see play.
Top 5 things that would make Hearthstone better
I think 2v2 would see more play than Arena, Duels, and mercenaries. What would be something more innovative than something I haven't already said?
Also an idea is increasing standard deck size to 32 or 34. Sometimes we just want to fit that last card in our deck and don't have a slot. Just adding 2-4 more cards to decks would be a cool change.
New Shaman Spell - Bioluminescence
OK, maybe Piranha Swarmers have a purpose after all. It feels a bit clunky to set up, but maybe, if you really want it to be a thing, you could generate some sort of OTK with Swarmers and Bioluminescence for a pseudo-Malygos to kill your opponent with Scalding Geysers. I do think it's funny that Blizzard knew they had this card in the pipeline when they said, "We're definitely pushing the game away from OTKs." This card is either an OTK enabler or garbage with no in-between.
List of Runeterra Daily Quests
Play Formidable units OR
Strike the enemy Nexus
0/5 OR
0/20
New Shaman Minion - Coral Keeper
Bear'on Glashear, except cheaper, you can run multiple copies, and it fits a little better with what Shaman is doing right now. Not necessarily a bad finisher in Shaman decks that run cheap spells like Windchill, Scalding Geyser, and the like. I think this will be good, and will see a lot of play.
New Shaman Minion - Piranha Poacher
It's pretty boring. Unless there's a really good payoff for having as many Piranhas as possible, I don't think you'd want to run this minion in a serious deck.
New Shaman Spell - Schooling
I don't think Shaman is a good deck for cheap Beasts with Rush. Maybe there's a Legendary in the pipeline that pays off on all these Piranha cards? Otherwise this feels, to me, like wasted space.
New Shaman Spell - Scalding Geyser
Good for Burn Shaman, as draw-fixing and another spell to fuel Multicaster. I like its synergy with Windchill. Cheap enough and flexible enough that it's probably going to find a spot in at least one deck, if not most Shaman decks.
New Rogue Minion - Pirate Admiral Hooktusk
I mean it is 8 mana 8/8 battlecry: mind control with other flexibilityat its best.
Therefore i believe this card will live or die by whether opponents can be reliable in building tall late game.
Against a token druid this card is absolute garbage in your hand for example
Against greedier Kazakhstan patriot decks yeah its a direct counter.
Its a tech card in other words. Avoid at all costs in arena.
Top 5 things that would make Hearthstone better
1.
Iksar said that a tournament mode comes up ever so often, but one of the problems for designing it is that many players have different expectations for how such a mode would work. I personally also doubt the popularity of that, since casual players (99% of the playerbase) probably won't care too much about it. Also there were people who wanted a more hardcore version of the Dungeon runs and Duels has a pretty stable playerbase.
Also a side note: no one asked for a digital WoW cardgame, yet here we are.
2.
2v2 was actually one of the original Ideas that ended up becoming Mercenaries.
""We started with a handful of pitches and ideas to explore,” he explains. “One of the things that gets asked about from the community, and that the team is passionate about trying to figure out, is some form of 2v2, and that was actually one of the original pitches. But as we went through, we settled on… character progression, roguelike RPG [elements]… as the thing that we wanted to add to Hearthstone."
3.
Probably not worth the dev ressources. Dynamically adding and changing rules would not only be rather hard to program, but the UI for this would also be pretty overloaded(especially on mobile), which is something they always try to avoid. It also wouldn't really add anything to the game that hasn't been there before with Tavern Brawls and would probably end up being played even less. Also giving players the ability to play with every card in their deck for free would probably negatively impact their sales.
4.
Sure, cheaper deals are always nice but... Why would they lower the prices? The game obviously already makes a ton of money and if their data would show that making they bundles cheaper would increase the overall income they would have already done that. You also don't have to buy every pre-order, even if you are not f2p. Buying both expansion pre-orders is also (in my opinion) overkill anyways and the mini-sets are best of being bought with gold and a great deal on top of that. Sure that's still a ton of money and worth 3-4 tripple A games, however you also (hopefully) get a year long of fun out of it. Or you just go f2p
5.
Arena never really was a popular mode even when they did regular changes (also remember the Arena event? I feel old now), so I don't see any reason why that would be different nowadays, especially since there are so many more options now. Also they already do ban cards. I'm not saying that they won't do any changes to it in the future, but that those won't make it "one of the best modes" for the majority of the playerbase.
New Warlock Minion - Bloodscent Vilefin
I don't buy Murlock, but a Dredge effect to find Gigafin and make it Cost Health is particularly spicy. I can't imagine that the new expansion is just a bunch of Murlocs for Warlock, so I don't think we'll see this in a dedicated tribal deck.
Top 5 things that would make Hearthstone better
On Duels, maybe you never asked for it, but there was definitely people talking about wanting a PVP version of Dungeon Run back when it was first introduced with Kobolds & Catacombs. To say no one asked for it isn't factual nor is it nice.
But yes, Tournament mode would be a nice addition to the game.
2v2 is definitely more difficult to add with how Hearthstone's UI is setup and how it must be mobile-accessible too. Would it make Hearthstone better? Sure. Personally, I'd rather see development time spent on something more innovative that wouldn't be a niche part of the game.
Dean Ayala has mentioned wanting to do a Sandbox mode several times and I agree, Hearthstone would be more awesome with it. It brings that feel of kitchen table card games into the digital world and it kinda blows my mind that no one has really done it in any of the big card games. Being able to force rules on players through that type of mode would tie-in nicely to tournaments!
I know this isn't what you'd like to hear, but I think Hearthstone is one of the cheaper games to play. Considering that the game is a card game, there is a certain amount of money any non-casual player should expect to pay to continue to be a part of the meta. Hearthstone is cheaper now than it used to be (don't include cosmetics), the bundles have even been better if you look at them historically. Hearthstone is a small drop in the bucket compared to what it costs to play Magic competitively, and many players are completely Free to Play and have some great collections. Hearthstone is generous.
You are right though, cheaper Hearthstone has a possibility of being better.
Blizzard has stated in recent times that they are working on Arena and trying to see where they want to go with it. (Source 1) (Source 2)
New Warrior Minion - Nellie, the Great Thresher
Quest Warrior already has infinite value from Juggernaut, so I don't think this would see play in that deck. Now, let's talk about Control Warrior. If you're confident in your ability to find at least one Mr. Smite, this could be some sort of pseudo-win condition to burst down your opponent from hand (or you could just run Mr. Smite and Discover the three biggest Pirates available). I'm actually really excited for this minion for one very specfic reason: there's a good chance that, if it sees play, it gets Mr. Smite nerfed.